1. Field of Invention
The technology described in the disclosed patent document relates generally to the field of touchscreen cell phone cases for the protection and interaction with and of smartphones.
2. Discussion: (Background)
Smartphones have become an integral part of modern society by combining a multitude of formerly independent devices into a single architecture. Examples of this are the combination of a standard cell phone with the functionality of a MP3 player, the ability to check email, send text messages, view calendars, etc. Smartphones do however still have limitations, mainly a fragile LCD display susceptible to cracking, as well as battery and processing power limitations. To overcome these limitations various add-on type peripheral devices have been constructed that interact with a smartphone to extend the inherent functionality of the phone.
One such device is a plastic case with a rubber lining to protect the smartphone from damage in the event the user drops the phone. In this situation the phone generally impacts the ground at a corner or the face of the LCD screen causing a crack. When a protective case is employed, the case absorbs some or all of the force, preventing damage to the phone. Today's consumers have a wide variety of cases to choose from that come in various sizes, shapes, colors, and even those with fixed images printed on the outer surface.
A second such device to overcome various limitations is a presentation type audio jack plug-in laser pointer. The dock-able laser pointer electronically couples with the audio jack of a smartphone to project a laser dot on a screen for use during a presentation. The smartphone then couples with an external computer operating system (OS) wirelessly to allow the phone to instruct the computer to move to the next slide in the presentation through a software based application “app” installed on the phone OS. Several drawbacks exist with this approach, namely the audio jack plug-in laser pointer adapter is a separate component from the phone, a software based application must be acquired and installed on the phone to enable the functionality to advance the next slide in a presentation, and finally once the system (audio jack plug-in laser pointer and app) is engaged, the screen of the smartphone is frozen and serves no useful purpose thereby not allowing the user to view where the mouse is on the screen. Lastly, this type of laser system is not self powered but rather draws power for the smartphone, consuming power and decreasing battery life in the process.
One solution to these drawbacks in the present invention is a protective smartphone case that electronically couples, either directly or wirelessly, to a smartphone, and contains a self enclosed touchscreen display for the display of images and video either from an internal loadable memory, external memory, USB, or by wireless transfer from the smartphone. Further, said protective smart case incorporates a dual onboard wireless technology and laser pointer. This is useful in many ways for the display of images as a static “skin”, to cycle through a series of images as a screen saver, as a means to play video, sound, edit pictures, or finally as a means to view a presentation on the smartphone case while simultaneously using the integrated case laser and dual onboard wireless to couple to an external OS to advance slides in a presentation while still retaining the ability to see where a mouse pointer is on the case touchscreen. This is useful as the smartphone case contains two separate wireless units or network interfaces (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for example), which respectively couple to the smartphone OS and an external OS. The first onboard wireless unit employs a Bluetooth communication protocol architecture to control the mouse and laser pointer. As the data rate for communication, from the smart case OS to the external OS, is not large for controlling a mouse, a high throughput is not necessary. Whereas the throughput for data going to and from the LCD screen is much greater and a Wi-Fi connection is needed to prevent a system overload. As such, the second onboard wireless unit (controller) employs a Wi-Fi architecture, for example, and controls the images and video to the smart case LCD screen. The use of dual onboard wireless controllers allows for fast communication of the smart case with both a smartphone and an external OS and high throughput data transfer.
The present invention would alleviate the need to purchase multiple smartphone or cell phone cases with printed pictures on the outer portion or “skin”, as the smart case would be able to display any image the user chooses and thus change any image as often as the user would desire. Additionally, the image cycling screen saver aspect of the invention is useful over currently available smartphone screen savers as the phone OS will time out and shut the screen off after a predefined period of time so as to preserve battery power. The smart case, having an onboard battery not tied to the phones battery would run independently of the phone OS and not shutdown when the phone OS times out. Further still, the user would be able to take a picture with said smartphone and transfer said image from the phone OS to the smart case OS for instant display of said image on the smart case. The same would be true for video.
Said protective smart case is formed from hardened plastic with a rubberized coating and designed to house a smartphone wherein said case mounted touchscreen serves to actively display images and video stored in the case memory and/or receive images and/or video from said smartphone for display. The smart case may also receive data from a USB port or an external micro-device card reader. Said case can also be used to edit, crop, or otherwise modify images and video through the case mounted touchscreen. Lastly, said protective smart case has a rechargeable battery such that when the smart case is plugged in the charging circuit both recharges the case as well as the smartphone battery. The case may also be powered through the USB port analogous to the charging circuit to either power the device and/or charge the case battery.
The invention components consists of a hardened plastic case with a rubberized coating, electrical connector (thirty pin or equivalent), dual wireless connectors, capacitive LCD touchscreen, laser pointer, battery, speaker, memory, processing function to perform operations of receiving and transferring data to and from a smartphone to the LCD screen and a speaker. The case will further comprise a mini USB data port, a recharging power port to plug in for recharging, a micro-device or SD type memory reader, and an infrared (IR) LED. The invention is designed to electronically couple to a smartphone that is housed within the case.
The coupling of the case to a smartphone may come through a physical electronic connector, either 3.5 mm TRRS (RJ11) connector or 30-pin, a USB connection, through IR, or through a RF wireless technology such as Bluetooth, TransferJet, UWB, or Wi-Fi. In the present embodiment of the invention Bluetooth and Wi-Fi protocols are used. Specifically Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 2.1+EDR, v3.0+HS, or Bluetooth v4.0 may be used to work in conjunction with the smartphones Wi-Fi capability.
It is foreseeable that the current invention may be adapted to fit a tablet as well as a smartphone by simply modifying the dimensions of the device.